Raising Healthier Generations with Fundamental Movement Skills
Written by Kathleen Michel
I grew up in Black Diamond, AB, a small town south of Calgary. I was fortunate enough to engage in many different sports which always kept me on the go. I participated in swimming lessons, dance classes, figure skating, joined the community soccer team, did volleyball, badminton, and track and field in school. Each activity brought me a different kind of joy, but what I loved more than anything was loose parts play.
Where It All Started
It’s a race!
Testing out the obstacle course at one of Vivo’s Pop Up Play Events in Seton.
The days I didn’t have organized sports were spent playing with the neighborhood kids. We loved to create our own fun with a whole lot of junk. A new development site surrounded us, so we were constantly dumpster diving for cool trinkets to take back home with us. Along with collecting junk, we created the largest, most delicious mud cake in the entire world! Our mixing bowl was the foundation of a soon-to-be-built house (little did I know it would be my now husband's family’s home… oops). Scrap wood, leaves, string, dirt and buckets of water were the ‘ingredients’ used to make our award-winning chocolate cake. Additionally, in 2012 we created our very own “Streetlympics,” where we set up various activities to participate in and challenge each other. We would stay outside right until the sun set and would repeat it all the very next day.
Moving Forward
After graduating high school, I was onto my next big adventure. Having a strong passion for physical activity, it was only natural to take my next steps to Mount Royal University (MRU) for Health and Physical Education. Majoring in Physical Literacy, I felt like I was in my element. We would learn all about the body and how it functions, have classes in the gym, learn how to strength train, go camping and a whole lot more.
Mountaineers at Panora Sqaure:
Children line up patiently waiting to climb and see the views from the top of Milk-Crate-Mountain! Although I think their favorite part was jumping down…
Many classes were hands-on, where we would be in the gym doing activities. In this particular class, we were going over Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS), such as running, throwing, catching etc. My professor instructed the class to begin skipping, so the class started to skip, but when we were instructed to gallop, I noticed that some of my peers struggled, and the movement didn’t come as naturally to them. I’m not going to lie; I was shocked at first to see some of my fellow classmates (who I thought were ALL supposed to be experts in this field) not be able to demonstrate this basic skill. It got me thinking that a lot of people, especially those who don’t have a background in sports or physical activities, may face the same challenge. It made me realize that although my peers and I were studying the same subjects in school, our prior experiences with movement, relevant to FMS, were different, impacting their ability to join the rest of the class.
I graduated with my Health and Physical Education degree in 2021 and was soon hired by the Vivo Play Project (VPP) as a Play Ambassador (PA). I saw this role as an opportunity to introduce and give children a similar experience to mine, with loose parts play. The secret to this type of play is that it’s unstructured, meaning the child actively WANTS to participate, and every activity they engage in is meaningful to them.
My Learnings
The biggest takeaway from my experience at MRU and being a PA is that FMS does not come naturally to us unless we are given the opportunity to practice them in a way that is exciting and stimulating to each individual. Working for the VPP has allowed me to share my passion for movement so that children can gain the confidence they need to excel in any activity their heart desires.
Whether leaping from island to island, running from zombies or balancing on a tight rope, children are exposing themselves to essential FMS that will fuel their success at one day being active for life.
Come on in!
Checking out the inside of a fort at Huntington.